Page:To the Court of the Emperor of China - vol I.djvu/36

Rh The second sort of religion, adopted long after the first, and consequently when the Chinese were already embodied into a regular nation, is Idolatry, and Idolatry carried to such a length, that every one is free to make Gods according to his fancy, so that every head of a family has some of his own creation.

This plurality of Gods naturally precludes all idea of a particular form of worship bringing together the members of certain sects. There are no external practices of devotion among the Chinese, if we except the male and female Bonzes.

There are, however, principal divinities who are very generally revered, and to whom all agree in ascribing a power over some particular thing. The Chinese sometimes go to the temples of these divinities to offer them homage; and to this worship the women are not altogether strangers, though they repair to the pagodas with great precautions to avoid being seen; but this has nothing in common, nor comparable with the usage, which in certain religions bring together all the individuals who profess it in one common temple. The Bonzes alone assemble to pray.

But notwithstanding the almost universal prevalence of idolatry, and notwithstanding its being countenanced by the Emperor himself, it is worthy of remark that he never goes to adore an idol, but contents himself with sending Mandarins to do so in his stead.

He professes publickly no other religion than that of the Almighty, God of Heaven and of Earth; nor does he offer sacrifices to any but that Being superior to all others, to the manes of his ancestors, and to the spirit of Confucius.

There are temples or Miaos where obscene Idols receive a tribute of respect and devotion from the Chinese, who generally blush at things which the most severe modesty does not blame in other countries; but superstition throws as it were a veil over these images, which prevents Chinese modesty from being here put to the blush.